2006.07.20: July 20, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Cameroon: Journalism: Speaking Out: Immigration: The Capital Times: Margaret Krome writes: Sharing immigrants' lives promotes understanding
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2006.07.20: July 20, 2006: Headlines: Figures: COS - Cameroon: Journalism: Speaking Out: Immigration: The Capital Times: Margaret Krome writes: Sharing immigrants' lives promotes understanding
Margaret Krome writes: Sharing immigrants' lives promotes understanding
"Wisconsin's economic vitality has benefited from many past waves of immigration, and we continue to benefit from today's immigrants. Go to many larger Wisconsin dairies and you'll find Mexican workers milking cows. Farmers who employ them say they can no longer find high school students and others willing to work in their dairies." Journalist Margaret Krome served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.
Margaret Krome writes: Sharing immigrants' lives promotes understanding
Margaret Krome: Sharing immigrants' lives promotes understanding
By Margaret Krome
In last weekend's sweltering heat, I watched Gregorio finish installing concrete steps for my neighbor, nicely landscaped and with a well-designed railing.
In another yard, in May, he designed and constructed just the fence that those neighbors wanted.
Watching his work, three more neighbors came hiring. His rates are reasonable, but mostly my neighbors say they hire Gregorio because he's a creative problem-solver and designer, doesn't shirk from heavy work, gets the job done on time, and attends to details. Having immigrated from Mexico 20 years ago, today he's a citizen.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform objects to amnesty or temporary immigrant worker programs, since many temporary workers become permanent. FAIR supports Wisconsin Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner's tough-minded immigration bill, saying that illegal immigrants cost U.S. taxpayers too much money in the form of education, public health and other social needs. Even when immigrants become legal, they take too many jobs from U.S. citizens and threaten the nation's cultural norms.
Yet many employers say that without immigrant labor they would not be able to find workers for their businesses. Owners of car washes, hotels, nursing homes, dry cleaners and many other businesses say they hire immigrants because their job postings go largely unanswered by U.S. citizens.
Wisconsin's economic vitality has benefited from many past waves of immigration, and we continue to benefit from today's immigrants. Go to many larger Wisconsin dairies and you'll find Mexican workers milking cows. Farmers who employ them say they can no longer find high school students and others willing to work in their dairies.
From fruit crop growers, to sod farmers, to dairies, immigrants help keep many of the state's agricultural sectors profitable. Many farmers are grateful and candid. One farmer I know pays a starting wage of over $9 an hour, and offers over $13 an hour, plus health benefits, for his longer-term workers.
Despite these reasonable wages, he and many other farmers can't find domestic workers interested in long hours and difficult work. Mexican workers, they say, are reliable and hardworking.
Over 50 percent more immigrants were reported in the 2000 census than in 1990. Even discounting some of that increase due to improved efforts to count immigrants in the most recent census, there is no doubt that immigration, especially Hispanic immigration, is increasing. The question is whether it is a problem and, if so, for whom.
Wisconsin's farm community is leading an honest discussion of immigrant workers' critical role in agriculture. John Rosenow is a western Wisconsin dairy farmer who recognizes the importance that Mexican workers play on his farm. A few years ago he began trying to understand the reverse perspective, which is the role that his farm plays in the lives of his Mexican workers and their families.
He and a few other dairy farmers formed a group called Puentes/Bridges, which helps farmers visit the Mexican villages of their employees. Puentes farmers witness families left behind when fathers and brothers travel to Midwestern farms to work. They see businesses slowly take shape in their employees' villages. They discover that these workers leave their families because they have no alternatives, often forced by the devastated agricultural economy in Mexico.
To farmers like Rosenow, Mexican workers aren't displacing U.S. workers. They are not draining the economy. Rather, they become people whose concerns become his own, whose labor allows his farm to prosper and help strengthen the state's dairy industry.
Wisconsin has always grown with the vision and hard work of its immigrants. Usually, there is resistance and fear when new cultures enter the state. But the Puentes/Bridges program deepens the understanding of relationships between Wisconsin and the villages from which our new immigrants come. This is a far sounder approach than punishing people who are forced to immigrate to find work, due to policies not of their own making.
Margaret Krome is a columnist for The Capital Times.
Published: July 20, 2006
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Story Source: The Capital Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Cameroon; Journalism; Speaking Out; Immigration
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